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No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea.

Shunryu Suzuki

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Shunryu Suzuki
Age: 67 †
Born: 1904
Born: May 18
Died: 1971
Died: December 4
Bhikkhu
Leader
Missionary
Philosopher
Writer
Atlanta
Georgia
Idea
Become
Centered
Ideas
Attached
Matter
Doctrine
Self
God
Believe
Based
Belief
Less

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Meditation opens the mind to the greatest mystery that takes place daily and hourly it widens the heart so that it may feel the eternity of time and infinity of space in every throb it gives us a life within the world as if we were moving about in paradise.
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To express yourself as you are, without any intentional, fancy way of adjusting yourself, is the most important thing.
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If you want to study Zen, you should forget all your previous ideas and just practice zazen and see what kind of experience you have in your practice. That is naturalness.
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Zen is everywhere.... But for you, Zen is right here.
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Although we have no actual written communications from the world of emptiness, we have some hints or suggestions about what is going on in that world, and that is, you might say, enlightenment. When you see plum blossoms or hear the sound of a small stone hitting bamboo, that is a letter from the world of emptiness.
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The purpose of our practice is just to be yourself.
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If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one.
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Life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact, we have no fear of death anymore, nor actual difficulty in our life.
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It is only by practicing through a continual succession of agreeable and disagreeable situations that we acquire true strengths. To accept that pain is inherent and to live our lives from this understanding is to create the causes and conditions for happiness.
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There will always be war, but we must always work to oppose it.
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A tiger does not ignore or slight any small animal. The way he catches a mouse and catches and devours a cow are the same.
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If you were not born in this world, there would be no need to die. To be born in this world is to die, to disappear [laughing].
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Zazen practice is the direct expression of our true nature. Strictly speaking, for a human being, there is no other practice than this practice there is no other way of life than this way of life.
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The secret of zen is just two words: not... always... so.
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To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism.
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To cook is not just to prepare food for someone or to cook for yourself it is to express your sincerity. So when you cook you should express yourself in your activity in the kitchen. You should allow yourself plenty of time.
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Instead of respecting things, we want to use them for ourselves and if it is difficult to use them, we want to conquer them.
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The secret of Soto Zen is just two words: not always so.... In Japanese, it's two words, three words in English. That is the secret of our practice.
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Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.
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